In the opening post of the thread entitled "Scott Graham at the Indiana Camp” Bro. MS
(Indiana) writes "I have been feasting on Bro. Graham's messages from the Indiana District UPCI camp meeting, but I especially wanted to mention his Friday night sermon, "Follow the Stones." The message was positively outstanding! Using the memorial of Israel from Jordan's crossing, Bro. Graham decried compromise and warned young preachers against following big crowds by embracing false doctrine and carnality! He unabashedly cataloged our traditional stand for holiness including hair, makeup, jewelry, modesty, and dress. It was a beautiful stand for TRUE Holiness. God put his stamp of approval on the message with a truly extraordinary visitation at the altar service. It was refreshing to hear holiness preached explicitly and without fear or favor. Bro. Graham said that God gave him the message for the broader Church, and he plans to preach it at many other meetings!!! Pray for ministers and saints in our fellowship to embrace this powerful message from the Lord!!!”
This message is one that any holiness believing Apostolic, particularly a conservative Apostolic, could support and agree with. Apparently, that is not the case with our some of our fellow conservative brethren who post on this forum. The following excerpts from the above mentioned thread regarding Bro. Graham were anonymously sent to me, and I feel that the behavior of some our fellow conservative brethren should be brought to light.
What started out to be a good thread turns into a bashing session of Bro. Graham, as various posters question whether or not Bro. Graham really believes in holiness. Some of our fellow conservative brethren are claiming that men in the UPCI are preaching holiness for the sake of damage control (due to the fallout from the passing of Resolution 4 at Tampa), not because they really believe in it.
Some of the responses to Bro. MS’s initial positive post are stunning. The following are some significant posts in this thread (author’s initials and state are listed in front of their comments):
Bro. JS (Missouri): “Did he have his gold jewelry on the third finger of the left hand while preaching and did he happen to mention that Television is sinful? Any Body happen to see his family? Just Wondering. There is more holiness preaching at UPC functions apparently than there has been in a decade or more. damage control and facade IMO. Time will tell.”
Bro. JP (Kansas): “Excuse me.....I never knew Mr. Graham to be conservative?????????????? Oh....I see.....he wasn't conservative in the old days; but, since the dresses got shorter, TV was allowed, and the queers have come out of the closet, he's all of a sudden conservative......MAKES ME WANT TO PUKE! Meow”
Bro. RS (California): “It grieves me that we are getting these "canned" generic messages on "holiness" TRUE holiness as you call it Bro. MS brings about TRUE changes. Where is the evidence of it!? Were there lipstick containers, & mascara containers, & broaches left at the altar!?”
Bro. RW (Kansas): “I have heard A. M. (Anthony Mangun) preach holiness BUT WHERE R THE FRUITS??? Not in his wife, daughter and definitely not on his platform let alone the pews... I can preach anything in your churches brethren...but the question is what do I believe and ENFORCE at home?”
Bro. JB (Colorado): “Is this one of the WEC-suggested generic holiness messages, or did this represent something from the heart and life of a man committed to his message?"
Bro. JP (Kansas): “The thing about Scott Graham...those of us who live in close proximity to St. Louis just found it to be a SHOCK he preaches and believes what you guys heard at camp.”
Bro. JP (Kansas):: “If he is Co-Pastor, why then would he "join himself to another man" who jointly owns a "video company"?
Bro. JP (Kansas):: “I question his associations with men who do not hold
his same views.”
Bro. JK (California):” Bro. Scott Graham is a great sermonizer/preacher. When he preaches it makes me wonder what I'm doing even trying to preach. However, I've heard him preach several times and NEVER heard him "name" anything.”
I particularly want to highlight the comments from Bro. Graham’s first cousin Bro. JG (Illinois), who attempts to discredit the holiness background of his own cousin:
“Brethren,
Bro. Scott Graham and I are first cousins; our fathers are brothers. We grew up in the same UPC church, received the Holy Ghost within minutes of each other and
were baptized, also, within minutes of each other. We were more like brothers than cousins as our next siblings are 8 years older that either of us.
Our home church was pastored by a UPC minister that had a TV. It was put in the closet when an evangelist or missionary came through but we all knew it was there. TV was never preached against. Every family in the church had at least one. We played baseball, basketball, and ran track in both jr. high and highschool. Ours was not an "I. H. Terry" church.
Bro. Graham's family has problems. One of his sisters married Eddie Couples, now charismatic; another sister is also backslidden with her husband; his mom and dad attend Eddie Couples' church in TN. There are many other factors that I could catalogue, but this sampling should give some idea of where we have come from.”
Why can’t some of our conservative brethren just rejoice that this type of message was preached to thousands at a UPC camp meeting? Is it really necessary to attack Bro. Graham’s family? It is sad to see Bro. Scott Graham’s holiness beliefs and family questioned on this forum, by a member of his own family, no less.
To their credit, some of brethren came to the defense of Bro. Graham:
Bro. HM (Louisiana): “In Bro. Graham's defense, I must say I attended National Youth Congress twice when he was youth president, and he preached it down the line then as well. That was WELL BEFORE TV had passed. Others may have only recently discovered the need to preach it since the passage of TV, but Scott Graham preached it nearly every time I heard him during his tenure as youth president.”
Bro. RP (Texas): “His message "Where does the mountain start." is one of the greatest on pastoral relationships and holiness I've ever heard...”
Bro. JC (Kansas): “Scott Graham is a cut above the average, I'll promise you that.”
PP (Texas): “I personally do not think God can bless our works if we turn our phrases into scathing, blanket remarks that accuse and divide the brethren. I know, my church is affected with how I treat my fellow neighbors in the Lord. Even if I don't agree with them completely. Lord help us to give grace, true grace, to those who haven't merited our kindness.”
Bro. DW (Texas): “Men, I agree with Bro. KN my friend PP and others. This has been wrong. If the UPCI is as bad as you men claim should you not be thanking God that someone has the guts to stand up and proclaim truth?”
Bro. BE (Illinois): “I will say this: Bro. Scott Graham grew up in the same District I did and I have known him many years. He has never done anything that I know of untoward or out of the way. He preached for me 4 years ago and he preached holiness and separation in one of his messages, both inward and outward.”
Bro. JL (Texas): “This thread was started as a positive thread about a good message by brother Graham, then BAM, it goes negative...This is very sad to me. Why can't you move on to another thread instead of coming in with both barrels firing for no apparent reason? Brother Graham has always preached Holiness from years back, even when he was National Youth President. Many of his messages impacted me personally. When I was a youth pastor I also saw many of our young people changed for the better after a week of him preaching youth camps, etc..I still remember the "where does the mountain start" message he preached all over our fellowship. Awesome message! He is one of my favorite preachers.”
Bro. JP (Kansas) responds to the brethren defending Bro. Graham stating: “Nobody has hurt Scott Graham more than Scott Graham. Good Grief.” Even if this statement were true, and I doubt that it is, questioning the man’s convictions and denigrating his character is not acceptable Christian behavior.
The web link to the church Bro. Scott Graham pastors is posted later in the thread by Bro. JK (California). I suppose the intention of this was to show that Bro. Scott Graham is indeed a liberal, and is just preaching Holiness because Headquarters has instructed him to do so. This post elicits the following exchange:
Bro. FRB (Kansas) “Hmmm, checked out the website, and the picture that greet me is a woman with something barely more than cap sleeves on...”
Bro. JP (Kansas) “The websight is very revealing. Thank you for posting it.”
Bro. JK (California): ‘That's why I posted it”
Bro. KM (Texas): “For those questioning why the firestorm is brewing: Click on About the Sanctuary, then click on staff. Look at his Men's Alliance Director. Then, click on Belong, then click on Music Ministry.”
Apparently, the men’s ministry leader, an African-American Brother, has a mustache. I guess this brother is going to spit hell wide open! I disagree with my conservative brethren on this issue. I don’t know what issue the brethren of this forum had with those in Bro. Graham’s music ministry.
It is interesting to note that many respected posters made repeated calls for the Administrators to lock the thread, which in its basic form, became an opportunity to bash Bro. Graham’s character, as well as those in the UPCI. The administrators allowed the thread to continue with the reasoning that the conservative brethren were just “Earnestly Contending for the Faith.” One poster, Bro. MB (Connecticut) responded to the calls for the thread being locked with the question “Why should good conservative brethren have to lock down a thread???” I’ll leave that one for the reader to decipher.
I wholeheartedly believe we should earnestly contend for that faith which was once delivered to the saints, but the absolute vilification of a man’s intentions, motives and character should not take place among Apostolic ministers on discussion forums, conservative or otherwise. What happened to just being a Christian?
In summation, I leave you with the comments of Bro. KN (Missouri) to his fellow posters on this forum: “Brethren, there was no call for launching a personal attack on Bro. Scott Graham. Mockery is not holiness. Scorn is not holiness. Smearing a man who's not on here to defend him is not holiness. Does it do any harm that he preached holiness? Was anybody damaged by the message of holiness that was preached? Did he say anything that violated Scripture? Why do we feel compelled to discredit and destroy? I hope everyone who has been big enough to talk about him behind his back is big enough to apologize to his face. I don't believe the Lord is pleased.”
Consider this passage of scripture - Ephesians 4:29 (KJV): “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.”
Consider also the words of Jesus: “But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment” (Matthew 12:36, KJV).
Indeed, the Lord is not pleased.
